Our wine-making philosophy

Environmentally-friendly wine-growing and organic wine-growing

In 2003 we began - with the assistance of specialists from the Chambre d'Agriculture (a local agricultural body) - a review of how the vineyard was run, with the objective of making our production methods more environmentally-friendly. We decided to begin to move towards organic viticulture.

 

In our test vineyard, les Corvées, we decided that we would do our utmost to try to only use products that are chemical-free.
We only use organic raw materials - copper salts, sulphates, and natural insecticides (made from plants). To protect vines from mildew and oidium (powdery mildew) we use sprays made from plant extracts and highly-diluted bouillie bordelaise (a copper sulphate pulp) as well as sulphur flowers in powder form.

 

Our aims are: to protect the natural ecosystem; to protect plant-life, animals and insects on the ground; to put more emphasis on the soil's lifespan; and to ensure the survival of local flora and fauna.
The alternatives to using chemical weedkiller are ploughing, weeding and letting natural grass growth occur.
The resulting soil will be both more natural and more representative the vineyard's unique local soil type. The vines' roots will be forced to go deeper into the soil to feed and will benefit from its higher content in mineral salts.
Only bio-dynamic (our energised) composted organic material will be added to the soil.

 

Finally in 2008, we decided to convert the whole of the vineyard (winegrowing) to organic agriculture.

 

Our goal is to promote good soil vitality by enriching it, and through the quantity of humus added permitting good microorganism development.
All synthetic chemical substances are excluded; protection of the vines is achieved by the plants’ better natural resistance, supplemented if necessary by treatment with fungicides based on simple products: rock powders, special sulphur or copper preparations, plant based preparations and soon fungal antagonists (Trichoderma) against the main fungal diseases, and sex confusion pheromones against grape worm.

 

 

 

Halting chemical treatment allows the development of beneficial insects and mites, limiting the development of spiders, acariosis and grape worm.

We promote the presence of a variety of grasses which we control by mechanical processes (ploughing and working the soil) to avoid too great competition with the vines.
Weeds restore the ecosystem in the vineyard, create humus and maintain a fauna of beneficial insects.